Wall Street Journal (WSJ), 02.01.2022, Opinion Page
Democrats are still looking to pull out ‘essential’ pieces of the Build Back Better plan and preserve the $200B Pre-K free tuition plan (pre-kindergarten for all 3-4 yr old students - ~5 million kids). New evidence shows that low-income children who attended a state pre-K program fared worse in sixth grade than similar children who didn’t (this matches previous studies of Head Start).
Researchers at Vanderbilt University have run a long-term study on Tennessee’s state pre-K program, following 2,990 low-income children. The program was oversubscribed, so researchers followed applicants who ended up in a program versus those who were turned away. This means all the children had parents motivated to sign them up for pre-K, making for a statistically appropriate control group.
Democrats say pre-K will give poor children a leg up for the rest of their lives, a “transformational investment,” as the White House pitched it. But the latest Vanderbilt findings, in the journal Developmental Psychology, found that “children randomly assigned to attend pre-K had lower state achievement test scores in third through sixth grades than control children, with the strongest negative effects in sixth grade.”
Also: “A negative effect was also found for disciplinary infractions, attendance, and receipt of special education services, with null effects on retention.” That more children needed special education is especially salient: Part of the progressive pitch is that government will spend less money on such interventions later if it shells out for pre-K. Please don’t count on it.
A closer look at the Biden proposal shows that the plan is insufficient and ignores unintended consequences:
The pre-K is offered a few hours a day, a few days per week, and only for part of the year IN public schools. What happens to parents who need childcare too?
What will happen to those programs if you siphon off all 3-4-year-olds from current faith-based and private child care? They typically depend on the older-aged kids to make it financially.
Note: Head Start programs only serve low-income families.
Results matter - when are Gov’t officials reviewing results to see how wonderful their plan was? In private business, we are required to have regular updates and a quick cancellation if the project is not delivering as promised on schedule.
The Evidence of Pre-K Education
The Evidence of Pre-K Education
The Evidence of Pre-K Education
Wall Street Journal (WSJ), 02.01.2022, Opinion Page
Democrats are still looking to pull out ‘essential’ pieces of the Build Back Better plan and preserve the $200B Pre-K free tuition plan (pre-kindergarten for all 3-4 yr old students - ~5 million kids). New evidence shows that low-income children who attended a state pre-K program fared worse in sixth grade than similar children who didn’t (this matches previous studies of Head Start).
Researchers at Vanderbilt University have run a long-term study on Tennessee’s state pre-K program, following 2,990 low-income children. The program was oversubscribed, so researchers followed applicants who ended up in a program versus those who were turned away. This means all the children had parents motivated to sign them up for pre-K, making for a statistically appropriate control group.
Democrats say pre-K will give poor children a leg up for the rest of their lives, a “transformational investment,” as the White House pitched it. But the latest Vanderbilt findings, in the journal Developmental Psychology, found that “children randomly assigned to attend pre-K had lower state achievement test scores in third through sixth grades than control children, with the strongest negative effects in sixth grade.”
Also: “A negative effect was also found for disciplinary infractions, attendance, and receipt of special education services, with null effects on retention.” That more children needed special education is especially salient: Part of the progressive pitch is that government will spend less money on such interventions later if it shells out for pre-K. Please don’t count on it.
A closer look at the Biden proposal shows that the plan is insufficient and ignores unintended consequences:
The pre-K is offered a few hours a day, a few days per week, and only for part of the year IN public schools. What happens to parents who need childcare too?
What will happen to those programs if you siphon off all 3-4-year-olds from current faith-based and private child care? They typically depend on the older-aged kids to make it financially.
Note: Head Start programs only serve low-income families.
Results matter - when are Gov’t officials reviewing results to see how wonderful their plan was? In private business, we are required to have regular updates and a quick cancellation if the project is not delivering as promised on schedule.
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